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Sunday, February 21, 2016

100th Blog Post!

Today I sit and write post #100 for the Preppy Mountain Farmhouse blog. I came across the above book Blogging for Writers by Robin Houghton when I was at Barnes & Noble one day last month. How I wish I had read this before I started blogging. Most of what I learned was through trial and error and researching on the Internet as I encountered problems or tried to understand the tech jargon. Much of the blogging information I found online was really directed at business owners or people trying to make money in some way from their blog. For me, I just wanted a creative outlet, a place to write, and a way to share with the world our life on a preppy mountain farm. Blogging for Writers is geared for people like me and the more serious writers who might be trying to promote their newly published books. By the time I discovered this book, I had already established my blog and found solutions to most of my issues, but it was reassuring to see I had done most things right. The one part that really hit home, however, was to avoid giving too much attention to my stats. I am a person who likes looking at statistics, numbers, demographics, but getting caught up in page views, unique visitors, subscribers, followers, fans, etc. can easily make me obsessed with them. If my stats look great, I feel good about my blog, but if the page views are down one day, I wonder why people didn't like my last post. The numbers can easily set the tone for my day. This Lenten season, I am seriously trying to cut way back on the amount of time I spend looking at statistics or numbers of likes on social media. It's a hard habit to break.

So to celebrate this milestone of 100 posts, I thought I would share what the Blogger stats reveal were the top 5 viewed posts for Preppy Mountain Farmhouse. These are the rankings as of this morning. Each post has a link to it, so if you missed the original, you can easily go right to it and check it out.

Top 5 Viewed Posts

1. Pink Zebra Birthday Bash. This featured the decorations and food used for our daughter's 13th birthday party last June. Pink and zebra print were her requests, and these types of items were in abundance at a number of stores. The Nutella ice cream cake was a super easy creation that was Pinterest-inspired. The rest of the ideas were thought up by our daughter or myself. This was such a fun party/sleepover, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

2. My Pinterest-Inspired Successes & Flops. I've had so much fun with Pinterest over the past year since I first started pinning. Many things turned out great; some were so-so; and others were complete disasters. I continue to be inspired by what I find on Pinterest, but I find it a humbling experience as well. On my personal boards, I have beautiful images of what I would like our house and farm to look like. These pins motivate me to try harder to create what my heart yearns for, but these pictures can also stress me out when I don't have the time, talent, or money to do or have what I really want. This is a post I could easily update seasonally since I go to Pinterest quite a bit for new ideas and then adapt them to fit our life and budget.

3. A Primitive Preppy Christmas Farmhouse Tour. I must admit this is one of my favorite posts too. I love decorating for Christmas, and I had so many ideas this year to go with this theme. I did end up spending a little more money than I usually do, mainly for burlap or plaid materials, but I'll use them again other years, I'm sure. That is, if my family isn't totally tired of rustic preppy. I actually still have a few winter-related items out and all of my snowmen are still sitting around the house. I guess I'll give them another week before I move on to spring decorating.

4. Fall Porch Makeover. I was surprised by the amount of traffic and comments on here and Facebook that this post received. I really thought people would be bored by our painting and decorating project. The completion of the porch makeover heralded in fall for me, my second favorite season of the year. I love the autumn colors.

5. Casual Summer Attire for a Middle-Aged Farm Mom. OK, this one perplexes me. I was actually really apprehensive to publish this post, and I almost deleted it because I am definitely no fashion blogger. When my hubby read it, he said he would never post pictures of himself modeling clothes on the Internet. Sometimes I wonder if it's still a fluke that this received the fifth highest page views. Or maybe there are a lot of middle-aged farm moms out there looking for casual outfits? I don't buy new clothes all that often, so there won't be many of these types of posts, I can assure you.

So that wraps up this 100th post on a gray slushy February morning here in the Alleghenies. I'll save my thoughts on blogging for when Preppy Mountain Farmhouse hits its one year anniversary, which will be in about two months. If you want to cast your vote for your favorite blog post, I'd love to hear about it here, in an email, or over on Facebook or Instagram.

2 comments:

Congratulations on your 100th blog post! I hadn't realized this was your first year of blogging - you didn't need that book - you're a natural at it!

You asked us to name our favorite post...

The Primitive Preppy Christmas Farmhouse Tour is my absolute favorite! I loved seeing all your beautiful, creative Christmas decor! I also love that you keep your snowman and various winter themed items out, a little while after Christmas. We do the same! Keeps the spirit of the season just a little longer!

Thanks for the high praise, Net. There have been times I have seriously considered throwing in the towel, especially the days when the stats show only a handfull of readers. But I really love blogging so I am sticking with it. The average blogger quits within 3 months, and I have surpassed that! Glad you enjoyed the Christmas decorating post. It was one that I really enjoyed writing and photographing.

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